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First...I'm very, very...VERY...(!) glad to be here. Typing to you through a new Firefox-Linux install no less, and not via Windows (yippee!).

I finally "freed" myself (well, except for that "gaming addiction" thing) from the choking grasp of Redmond only thirty or so short minutes ago. I "had it up to here" quite a while back, but it took another month for me to think through the necessary weaning-away procedures.

The fact that my Windows install has slowed to a crawl (or more of a stutter) did help me find the last bit of motivation too.

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My current system sports two IDE disks: Original disk is 120GB, NTFS (It's my original Windows 2000 boot disk).

I Just added a 320GB disk instead, as a new master, so the old disk is now only a source for data, viruses, bots, malware, rootkits and trojans (have I missed anything else evil or will this description just about cover it?)

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Procedure:

I first reinstalled a stripped down, basic version of Windows 2000 Pro to my new harddisk, into a new NTFS formatted partition, 127GB (*Note: I TRIED to install it first to a blank FAT32 formatted partition, which I set up beforehand using gparted from the Mint-liveCD, but the Windows Setup routine would not run all the way through properly--it recognized the partion, and the FAT32 format, and it SEEMED to successfully install itself, but then it simply tried to reinstall itself again on several subsequent reboots--I finally gave up after two or three tries and another wasted hour).

So I finally just resigned myself, and let it install itself the way it wanted to do: First it reformatted the partion to NTFS, and then it installed. Not what I wanted, no...but it worked.

I next updated Windows to Service Pack 4. I have NOT yet managed to update my Windows install to Dx9c (still in default Dx7, although I hope to get that done soon too).

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I followed all THAT up with this latest harddisk install of "Bea" (Gnome desktop), and it's from here I'm back on the web, talking to you peeps....

So here I am.

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The first thing I would like to accomplish is to import my Firefox Bookmarks to my Linux install from my original Windows install (NTFS file system).

It won't absolutely kill me if I cannot do this...but it sure would save me some time if I can.

I exported the W/F bookmarks as a file (and I know where it is), so it seems to me I should be able to port/copy them over...but can I?

I do see where gparted's "features" suggest I probably cannot "move" files out of a NTFS formatted disk...but is that what I'm really asking? I just want a copy of them.

Or is this too much to ask?

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Last: I have read in various places that, when it comes to moving files betweek Linux and Windows, the only guaranteed "airlock" they can be moved through is some sort of FAT16 or FAT32 repository. According to gparted, anyway....

So my next idea is to allocate some FAT formatted file space to which I can save save my essential gaming downloads...and then reboot into Windows to scan them for nasty fingerprints before plonking them in.

If I can avoid using a Windows browser completely, I will be a happy guy

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Thoughts? Is this really feasible? Or is it simply wishful thinking on my part?

"Can I share my bookmarks with Firefox installed on a dual-boot system?
Yes you can do that too! Learn how to do this in the Tips & Tricks section. Or you can store your bookmarks on the Internet to allow easy access from everywhere."

in a post from may 19 ??
Bianca and forward (possibly Bea too) has ntfs-3g witch gives you full read/write to ntfs.
Start by sharing your profiles. As I don't want write permissions to my XP partition in Mint (and definitely not the other way round) I moved my Thunderbird and Firefox profiles to another Windows partition with ntfs. How you do that is described in the Mozilla help pages. You don't have to move them - it's probably (more than) ok to give write permissions to ntfs from Mint (but not...)
Then use the description in how to move the profiles to change the path to your profiles in Mint even if you don't move them (there is some "flag" you have to set, you can't just change the path)
Then you have the same bookmarks, noscript settings and email accounts in both Windows and Mint
Very handy when you start using Mint

I had already burned myself a couple of "Bea" image Live CD's a little while back (with good checksum), which is why I'm starting out with Bea rather than Bianca. Bianca's NTFS accessibility would certainly be handier to have had right out of the box, yes. No biggie, I'll just get there a bit more slowly is all.

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Unfortunately, GRUB and Windows aren't playing nice at the moment (the latter now won't boot), but I realize that issue belongs in another subforum....